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THE 



TOPOGRAPHY AND HYDROLOGY 



ISTE^TV YORK. 



EGBERT L. VIELE. 




NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 

81 83, and 85 Centre Street. 

1865. 



F i >:■ 



THE 

TOPOGRAPHY AND HYDROLOGY 

OF 

NEW YORK. 



Probably there is no spot in the world so well adapts by 
nature for the purpose of a commercial entrepot as the Island on 
which the city of New York is built. Lying upon the upturned 
edge of a vast primitive formation, whose upheaval has given it a 
well defined water-shed,- combined with every variety of surface ; 
containing twenty-two superficial square miles, every foot of 
which is adapted to building purposes, its shores crested by noble 
rivers rolling into the ocean, pregnant with creative energy J pro- 
jecting into a bay which contains twenty-four square miles of 
water surface, and connects with an outer roadstead of 100 square 
miles in extent ; and, to crown all, blessed by a climate of unsur- 
passed salubrity. 

Every year adds its millions of increase to the business of its 
merchants. New palaces of trade and industry are rising up on 
every hand, and so it will go on ; capital will continue to seek 
here an investment, and labor its reward, and a few years will 
find a city rivalling in population, opulence, and splendor, any city 
of ancient or modern times. If there are those who doubt it, 
let them look back at the progress of the city for the last thirty 
years. In 1826 the number of inhabitants was 150,000, and the 
estimated value of taxable property 100,000,000 dollars. In 1856 
the number of inhabitants was 700,000, and the value of taxable 
property was 500,000,000 of dollars. At this rate of increase in 
thirty years the number of inhabitants will exceed two millions, 
.and the value of property exceed three billions of dollars. 

The sanitary condition of the vast multitude which is accumu- 



Sating within the limits of the metropolis becomes a matter of 
vital importance to every citizen. High and low, rich and poor, 
all are alike interested. In calling attention to what appears to 
be the principal source of disease and death, it is hoped that the 
facts set forth may lead to those measures of precaution and 
remedy which are absolutely necessary to secure the future pros- 
perity of the city. 

Of the total number of deaths which take place annually over the 
whole*surface of the globe, nearly one-half are caused by fever in 
its different forms. To this may be added the number who perish 
by diseases which originate under circumstances similar to those 
which produce fever. 

It is a well established fact that the principal cause of fever is 
a humid miasmatic state of the atmosphere, produced by the pre- 
sence of an excess of moisture in the ground, from which poison- 
ous exhalations constantly arise, vitiating the purer air, and carry- 
ing into the system of those who inhale it a virus which, if not 
sufficiently intense to produce fever, has such a disturbing effect 
upon the functions of some organ, or set of organs, as to weaken 
the general system, and act as a powerful predisposing cause of 
some of the most common and fatal maladies to which the human 
body is subject. It follows as a matter of course that the first 
effort to improve the salubrity of any place whatever, should be 
directed toward preventing the aggregation of water in particu- 
lar localities, and to remove such as has been allowed to collect. 

In order to illustrate more clearly this subject of drainage, let 
us examine it in connection with a district of country where the 
surface is in a perfectly natural condition, unaltered or unaffected 
by any artificial improvements — diversified by hills and valleys, 
the elevations and depressions forming the water-sheds and water- 
courses by which the ground is partially relieved of the excess of 
rain which falls upon it. The evaporation which is constantly 
going on, under the influence of solar heat upon the waters of the ' 
ocean and of the land, carries into the atmosphere large quanti- 



ties of water, which, through changes of temperature, becomes 
condensed, — and descends again upon the earth. But a small 
portion of that which is annually discharged from the clouds is 
necessary to vegetation, or is absorbed by the ground. A por- 
tion of it passes off on the surface into the rivulets and rivers, and 
thence to the ocean. Another portion descends through the soil 
by the force of gravity, until it meets with an impermeable sub- 
stratum : flowing along this stratum, it either accumulates in hol- 
low basins, or diffuses itself through extensive tracts of subsoil, 
finding vent in the shape of springs ; or by spreading itself over 
a large mass of soil, it saturates it as a sponge, rendering it unfit 
for cultivation, creating marshes a*nd swamps, whence arise the 
malaria so destructive to health. These are visible effects ; but 
there is another condition by means of which this surplus water 
is rendered injurious to vegetation and to health : — As soon as a 
portion of w T ater is beneath the surface, it is acted upon by capil- 
lary attraction in addition to the force of gravity, the tendency 
of which is to hold it in suspension, whereby the soil becomes 
soured and chilled by the evaporation, which carries the water 
off in the shape of mist, so that even in those sections of country 
where there is no evidence of marshes or swamps, the nature of 
the soil may be such as to render it extremely unhealthy. 

As the sanitary condition of any city or district of country is 
so intimately connected with its proper drainage, and the latter 
is so dependent upon and governed by the topography of the 
locality, it would appear requisite that any inquiry into the 
causes or remedies for sanitary evils existing in the city of New 
York should, be based upon a thorough knowledge of the topo- 
graphy of the island upon which it is built ; and I have no hesita- 
tion in expressing the opinion that one of the chief causes of 
mortality is to be found in the defective drainage of certain dis- 
tricts of the city ; and furthermore, that this is an ' evil which is 
increasing as the city extends itself towards the northern portion 
of the island, and that the main elements by which the evil is 



6 

increased are the so-called city improvements, or grading of 
streets and avenues, which are now being carried forward. 

To properly understand the position assumed — it is neces- 
sary to bear in mind that the topography of the island of 
New York varies from 5 to 150 feet above high-water mark ; 
that between these two limits there is every variety of surface. 
In some sections the topography is of the most intricate descrip- 
tion — abrupt ledges of rock, deep and narrow valleys, sudden 
upheavals and contortions of the geological formations. Wind- 
ing along this varied surface, in every direction, are the original 
drainage-streams, one of them of such an extent that it was for- 
merly used for mill purposes. • 

Now, in laying out the city, the rectangular system of streets 
and avenues has been adopted, no reference whatever being made 
to the original topography of the island. The consequence is, that 
the grading of the streets, especially in the upper part of the city, 
consists of deep rock excavations and high embankments, some 
of them as high as forty feet. These embankments cross, of 
course, the old valleys of drainage, through which flows the 
drainage-stream of a large area. In most instances a few stones 
are thrown together and called a culvert, for the purpose of let- 
ting these streams pass under the embankments. A few months 
suffice to destroy these culverts for the purposes of conductors, 
and the embankments soon become permanent dams, causing the 
collection of large bodies of water all over the island, which in 
midsummer become stagnant pools, breeding pestilence and 
disease. 

Whenever it becomes desirable to improve the lots adjacent 
to these embankments for sale or building purposes, earth is 
dumped in to absorb the water, which is none the less present 
because it is not seen. The soil, becoming saturated, forms a 
sort of sponge, through which the water ascends by capillary 
attraction, giving out a constant miasma, no less fatal to health 
than the stagnant water which it replaced. 



Any system of sewerage, no matter how perfect, would not be 
a remedy for this evil, for the sewers are but ten or twelve feet 
below the grade of the streets, whilst, as has been stated, in some 
instances these streams are forty feet below the grade of the 
streets, being thirty feet between the bottom of the sewer and 
the water of drainage. 

Furthermore, within the corporate limits of the city, more than 
seven hundred acres have been filled in where the tide once 
flowed, and the material of this filling has generaUy been the 
worst description of earth for such a purpose. The fearful ra- 
vages of epidemics in these portions of the city are sufficient evi- 
dence of their insalubrity. 

Commencing at the Battery, and following the original topo- 
graphy, we find that, previous to the year 1695, an inlet, and sub- 
sequently a canal, ran through what is now Broad street, as far 
as Exchange Place, with a branch running toward the West 
through Bearer street, afterwards known as the Old Ditch. The 
main canal was crossed by two principal bridges, one at where 
is now Bridge street, and the other at Stone street, while at 
Beaver street there were two smaller bridges for foot passen- 
gers. The Long Island ferry-house stood at the corner of New 
street and Exchange Place, the ferry-boat passing through the 

canal. 

A little further north a stream ran through what is now Maid- 
en Lane. Next above, where is now Ferry street, was Beek- 
man's Park, a large tract of wet land, from which a stream ran 
into the East River. Next was the Collect Pond, a large body 
of fresh water, said to have been seventy feet in depth, located 
in the basin, the site of which is now occupied by the Tombs. 
On this small lake Fitch launched his first steamboat. A stream 
called the Wreck Brook ran from the Collect to the East River, 
through a low meadow ; it emptied into the river at the foot of 
what is now Roosevelt street. There was formerly a bridge 
across this on the old road, which is now Chatham street. 



8 

The main outlet of the Collect was by a stream, running to the 
North River, through the Lispenard Swamp, which covered a 
very large surface, extending from Duane street on the south to 
Spring street. A large stone bridge crossed this stream at Canal 
street. In the year 1796 a project was submitted by two engi- 
neers to the city authorities, for making a dock or basin of the 
Collect, as a safe harbor for shipping, and to drain and carry off 
the water from that quarter by means of a ship canal. This shows 
what an extensive affair this body of water was. So far back as 
1805, a committee appointed to examine in the condition of the 
Collect Pond, reported that it was filed with the bodies of dead 
animals, and was dangerous to the public health. 

It has now disappeared from vi6w, but is more or less present 
in the soil — as is evidenced by the miasma which has proved so 
fatal to many poor wretches who have been arrested in a night's 
debauch, and thrown into the stone cells of the Tombs, never to 
awake from their drunken sleep. 

The next stream above the Collect, on the North River side, 
was called the Minetta Water, originating in the neighborhood 
of University Place and Sixteenth street ; it emptied into the Hud- 
son near the foot of Hamersley street, passing through what is 
now Washington Square, and creating a great deal of swampy 
soil in its course. AVhere it crossed the old road near Eighth 
street, there was a bridge, and the stream was twelve feet wide 
at this point. It is now lost to sight, but very dear to the memo- 
ry of some people, for it has cost a great many doctors' bills. 
The physicians can trace the course of this stream by their prac- 
tice in intermittent fevers. On the opposite side of the city were 
the Stuyvesant swamps, a very extensive area of low alluvial 
land, receiving the waters of numerous small streams. Tompkins 
Square lies in this region. The easterly side of the city is swampy 
all the way up from here to Kip's Bay. 

A con-siderable stream, creating a great deal of swampy land, 
received the drainage of Murray Hill and vicinity, passing 



9 I 

through what is now Madison Square and Gramercy Park; so 
we see there are five public squares located entirely, or in part, 
in swamps, namely : St. John's, Washington, Tompkins, Madison, 
and Gramercy. On the westerly side, again, we find a stream 
emptying into the Hudson at 32d street and 11th avenue, coming 
all the way from the 6th avenue, and pursuing a very tortuous 
course, and creating an abundance of swampy soil. Another at 
42d street, of nearly the same character and extent, 

In the more elevated portions of the island, as the topography 
becomes more intricate with higher hills and more extensive 
valleys, the water-courses increase in magnitude. The progress 
of street grading has obstructed these streams, forming in all 
directions large deposits of stagnant water, engendering a corre- 
sponding amount of fever and ague, from which a large portion 
of the population of that section of the city are at the present 
time suffering. In the neighborhood of Broadway, Eighth ave- 
nue and 62d street was, until recently, a stagnant pond emitting 
the most noxious odors ; it is now partially obscured by a cover- 
ing of earth thrown in to bring the lots into the market. The 
earth, however, is as full of water as a sponge. 

A stream originating in this pond runs in a north-westerly 
direction, then turns and crosses the Central Park diagonally to 
the comer of 59th street and 5th avenue ; here a miserably con- 
structed culvert partly obstructs and dams back the water; 
crossing 59th street, it passes under the 5th avenue n^ar 58th 
street; then again crossing 59th street, between 4th and 5th 
avenues, it passes under the 4th avenue, between 58ih and 59th 
streets ; then crossing 58th, 57th, 56th, and 55th streets, between 
3d and 4th avenues, it runs into a sewer at the junction of 3d 
avenne and 54th street. A branch of this stream passes under 
the Arsenal through a well-constructed conduit, and under the 
5th avenue and 64th street, where it debouches to the surface, 
and crossing 63d, 62d, 61st, and 60th streets, joins the main stream 
at the junction of 4th avenue and 59th street. 



10 

Another large stream rises between 8th and 9th avenues, and 
running easterly, crosses the Central Park at 74th street ; passes- 
under the 5th avenue at 74th street ; then crossing 4th avenue 
and 3d avenue, between 74th and 73d streets, crossing and 
recrossing 75th street, between 2d and 3d avenues ; crossing 2d 
avenue, and then 74th street, near 1st avenue; crossing and re- 
crossing 74th street, between avenue A and 1st avenue; crossing 
avenue A between 74th and 75th streets, and avenue B between 
the same streets, it empties itself into the East River. This 
stream is more than three miles long. The various turnings are 
caused by ledges of rocks. A large body of water passes through 
it, which at one time turned a mill, and the ground throughout 
its whole course is swampy. It is scarcely necessary for me to 
go on describing the courses of all the original streams. Those 
I have described contained almost as much, water as has been 
collected from various sources on Long Island for the Brooklyn 
Water Works, which have just been completed. 

I know that it is generally supposed that when the city is 
entirely built upon, all that water will disappear ; but such is not 
the case. 

The very material which is thrown in to cover it up will form 
a nucleus for its increase, not only retaining a larger amount of 
moisture, but will have added to it the drainings through the 
animal and vegetable refuse which accumulates in all large cities. 
The fatal consequences which we have already felt are trifling 
compared to the suffering that will follow the entire occupation 4 
of the island. The older cities of Europe give us sufficient evi- 
dence of this. They pursued the same course which we are fol- 
lowing, and what has been the result ? Take, for instance, the 
city of Glasgow ; for five years ending 1840, 55,949 persons were 
attacked with fever — every fifth person in the city ; out of these 
4,788 died. We know not at what moment, under a combina- 
tion of unfavorable circumstances, a pestilence may break out 
among us ; everything is ripe for it, and so sure as it begins, so 



11 

sure will it follow the water lines which I have pointed out ; it 
has done it before, and will do it again. It is a remarkable fact 
that the cholera broke out in 1832, in London, in the very spot 
where the plague first appeared in 1551 and 1605. In Hamburg, 
subsequent to the cholera of 1832, the district which suffered the 
most was thoroughly drained, and when the disease reappeared 
in 1848, that district was almost exempt. 

There is now no doubt that the ravages of the plague in 
Europe in 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, were due to precisely the 
same causes which foster the diseases to which we have referred. 
Of this disease there died in — 



Florence, . 






60,000 


Venice, . 






100,000 


Marseilles (in one month), 






16,000 


Vienna, 






70,000 


Paris, .... 






50,000 


St. Denis, . 






14,000 


Avignon, 






60,000 


Strasburg . 






16,000 


Lubech, . . . 






9,000 


Basle, .... 






14,000 


Erfurt, 






16,000 


London, 






100,000 



- How soon shall New York be prepared to enter this list ? 

The map will serve to convey some idea of the extent of the 
evil to which the city is exposed, if the subject of proper 
drainage continues to be disregarded. 

The remedy to be applied in the lower part of the city is to 
widen the narrow streets, and to raise the grade where the 
streets pass through the original depression of the surface. Nar- 
row streets, under any circumstances, are a curse to a city. They 
are too generally the abodes of vice and crime. In them an ordi- 
nary sickness spreads into a pestilence, and a fire into a confla- 



12 

gration. They are always filthy in summer, and frequently 
blocked up with snow in winter. They are not fit for business 
purposes, for they stifle commerce ; nor for residence, for they 
breed disease. Wide streets, on the contrary, are more healthy 
and cheerful for residences, and more useful and valuable for 
business purposes. There is less danger from fire, as the flames 
cannot spread across the street. They are cleaner in summer, 
and are never impassab'.e in winter. By constructing lateral 
drains along the slope of the depressions in the lower part of the 
city, and connecting them with the sewers, they will intercept 
the water in its descent and prevent its accumulation in the origi- 
nal basins ; and then raising the grade, at the same time widen- 
ing the streets and perhaps discontinuing some of the short and 
insignificant streets in the sixth ward, the health of the city will 
be improved one hundred per cent. So far as regards the upper 
part of the city, it is absolutely necessary that some system 
should be adopted for the free flow of water along the channels 
of the original drainage stream. This can be done by building 
more substantial culverts beneath the streets, and by the con- 
struction of permanent drains, so built as to admit of the perco- 
lation of water through the interstices of the covering. These 
drains should be excavated to a firm substratum, and every 
property owner should be compelled to construct, of a uniform 
character, that portion of each drain which may pass througb his 
property. 

Let us hope that the time is coming when we shall do some 
credit to the higher intelligence and broader philanthropy which 
characterize the age in which we live, and shall adopt those 
measures which are so clear and so imperatively necessary, if we 
would avoid the want, and woe, and wretchedness which form 
so many black phases in the history of the cities of Europe. In 
this money-making, money-wasting generation, let us not be deaf 
to the lessons of the past. And while we are erecting our mar- 
ble palaces of trade, rearing our domestic altars in gilded and 



13 

frescoed halls, and seeking heaven with the spires of our gothic 
temples of religion, let us not forget that more than all this 
splendor surrounded the thrones of the Caesars, and yet Rome 
fell under the combined influences of a lawless democracy and 
the malaria of the Pontine marshes. 

In her history we may read our future unless we learn wisdom 
by her experience. 



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